One-shot: Where was four?
by The Pygairian
Summary: Set during the events of The Five Doctors. Where exactly did four go while everyone else was fighting for survival in the Death Zone on Galifrey?


**This is just a little thing I thought of. What exactly happened from four's perspective, during the events of The Five Doctors?**

One moment, he was floating in a gondola, conversing with Romana concerning Newton's Law, and the next, he found himself suddenly numb all over. his vision blacked out, and all his senses went dead. An intense pain wracked in his head, causing him to gasp in pain. He felt like he was falling. He blinked, and found himself floating in a white emptyness. He felt confused and disoriented. His head was still throbbing, and now he felt as if something were missing in his very center.

His mind cleared enough for him to assess his situation.

_Well, this can't be right... _He thought to himself after a moment. _I don't seem to be... anywhere at all. In a state of nothingness..._

He looked down at himself. He still had a body, or at least seemed like he had. He touched one hand with his other._ I certainly feel solid._

Observing his suroundings, he found that the world was all white, with nothing else. No sound. No light, and no shadow. The whole world around him was simply nothing.

The Doctor was just contemplating what this could mean when he felt a stab of pain in his head, and he instinctively put his hands up, gripping his skull.

He gasped in alarm, suddenly, as he felt peices of his center begin to disappear. With alarm, he realized it was his past slipping away. Something dreadful was happening to his past selves.

In desperation, and blind pain, he flailed and clawed at the space around him in vain, hoping to perhaps move or be released from this hellish prison.

Quickly, he saw this acomplished nothing. He tried to shout in frustration, but nothing came out. He was trapped, with no way in or out, suspended in this living-death-like state.

-**DWDWDWDW-**

The Doctor had no idea how long he'd been suspended there. Minutes. Hours. Days. For all he knew, he'd been there for a millennia. He'd tried to make sense of linear time passage, but soon found it impossible.

He could feel his mind begin to lose focus, as if fading. Panic filled him. _No!_

Quickly, he started gasping at the nearest thoughts and ideas in his mind, doing his best to keep the emptyness away. The emptyness... he grit his teath and screwed his eyes shut.

He thought up complex mathimatical problems and solved them. When that got old, he told himself all the old galifreyan nursery rhymes over again, twice, counted the number of diamond patterns on his sweater, went through all the constilations and the planets he could think of in alphabetical order, worked out the solution to fixing the chameleon circuit and forgot it again, and was halfway through counting the number of threads in all the tassles on his scarf when the headache suddenly returned, full force.

He gasped and clutched his head again, as if trying to hold it togeather in case it were to split open. The words were not spoken, nor were they even telepathic. In all honesty, he couldn't say where they'd come from. Nevertheless, they were there.

_Doctors, Unite! We must be one!_

The Doctor could feel that he himself was in danger, whether past, present, or future. Some sort of psychic attack. He closed his eyes and consentrated.

_Resist. Resist._

He reached outward for his other selves. Yes, now he could feel them. The old man, the cosmic clown, the dandy, all there. He could also feel a fourth. It must be his future self. But he had a hard time reaching him, and he felt almost empty, as if he wasn't fully there.

Then he realized it. _HE__ wasnt there. _His future self's very existence was in danger of fading because he wasn't there.

His eyes flew open, only to be greeted by white again.

In frustration, he flailed a moment again, but then his head cleared from the pain.

_You've already tried that... _he said to himself, _...and it got you nowhere. Just settle back and think. There's got to be a logical solution, and you'll find it soon enough. _

He thought. And thought. And thought some more. Nothing came to him.

He was about to stumble upon a solution, He was sure of it, but then something strange happened.

He felt his limbs begin to tingle, and his vision faded again.

Next thing he knew, he was standing on the edge of the gondola again, though there was a slight problem. He was losing his balance, as his pole caught on something. In a moment, he fell backwards into the water, losing his hold on his pole.

Romana's voice rang out. "Are you okay, Doctor? What happened?"

The Doctor sputtered and spit water as he clampered his way back onto the boat. He stayed silent a moment. Memories he hadn't had before were filling his mind. Time scoops. The death zone. His future self. The Lord President. Cybermen. Trapped in the space-time vortex. _Trapped in the space-time vortex._

He retrieved his pole and glanced at Romana.

"Nothing really. I just lost my balance for a moment." He replied, flashing a grin, his sopping hair and clothing adding to the ridiculousness of his appearance. he pushed his mop of hair out of his face. He had never been so happy to hear his own voice, though he noticed it seemed somewhat shaky. He hopped Romana wouldn't notice.

Romana seemed to sense it was something more, but didn't push it.

"Very well, Doctor." She replied. "Now then, I was just thinking how perhaps..."

The Doctor looked down at his sopping self. He'd never been so happy to feel air, water, the weight of his body on his feet, including that slight ache in his left foot. He smiled slightly. He'd never been so happy to feel warmth and light again. He smiled.

**I hope you enjoyed this. I might possibly do a story later where the fourth Doctor did make it to the Death Zone alright. What do you think?**


End file.
